Eagle
Eagle (real name tipyeléhne, also known as Black Eagle in the KI comics) is a character mentioned in Killer Instinct (1994) who made his first playable debut in the post-Season Three content of Killer Instinct (2013). He is the younger brother of Thunder/hinmatoom (or his older brother in the comics) and, just like him, is a traditional Native American warrior originating from the Nez Percé tribe in Idaho. Eagle had been kidnapped by Ultratech and used as the basis for their cyborg soldier Fulgore (the Fulgore Mk. III in the rebooted universe), until he was rescued from his confinement by the alien Glacius. Eagle's teaser trailer, revealing him as the last new character to be added during Season Three, was first shown at the Combo Breaker tournament 2017. He was released on June 27, 2017. Biography Appearance Eagle is one of the few characters mentioned in the original Killer Instinct (1994) who had yet to make in-game appearances in any of the series' titles, his likeness only ever seen in the KI comics published in the mid '90s. In some of the comics, he is shown to have long and black hair, but in others, he is bald. He wears a leather headband (adorned with feathers in appearances where he's portrayed as bald) as well as a pair of leather armbands. He is shown to be holding a bow in one piece of artwork. Eagle's 2017 teaser trailer marked the character's first official appearance in a Killer Instinct game. It portrays him as a fast-paced Nez Percé archer who wields a futuristic-looking bow and carries a whip-like weapon, is accompanied by a robotic bird of prey which appears to be his guardian and who is wearing some kind of bionics suit. Eagle also features bright, glowing glyphs across his torso, face and right arm that are reminiscent of the ones seen on Glacius, the extraterrestrial entity who has released him from Ultratech's captivity. It is unclear at present whether Eagle's unusual equipment and bionic modifications are due to experimentations performed by Ultratech, or if they represent highly advanced alien technologies which Glacius has entrusted to his new Earthling protégé. Eagle's Retro Costume wears similar to his brother's Nez Percé costume including his long pompadour hairstyle with braids (now with feathers at the end) but instead he wears blue pants with red pattern below along with tribal patterns at each side, a pair of brown shoes and a green loin cloth with white patterns. He has red war paint on his right arm, chest and face. His bow and arrows are authentic and hand made and his bird guardian is still organic. Personality To be added... Abilities A gifted amateur fighter in his own right, Eagle is skilled in both boxing and wrestling, compared to his mountain of an older brother who became a football star. Devoted in his training to become the ultimate fighter and protect the ones he loves, his skills earned him a spot with the underground spy agency, the Disavowed, who later sent him to infiltrate the first Killer Instinct tournament. His fighting prowess and intellect were unique enough to gain the full attention of Ultratech CEO ARIA, who had him captured and used as the basis for their ruthless cyborg soldier, Fulgore. Killer Instinct (1994) Story Like his brother Thunder, Eagle was a skilled warrior. He had entered a previous Killer Instinct tournament and won, using his newfound fame to publicly protest the evils of Ultratech. Unfortunately, this protest was short-lived, as Eagle mysteriously vanished shortly afterwards. Eagle was converted into the first in a line of cyborg soldiers known as the Fulgores, and was sent to participate in the upcoming Killer Instinct tournament. Coincidentally, Thunder entered the same tournament in order to discover the fate of his brother. He did not win the tournament, but he succeeded in finding out that Eagle had seemingly "perished" at the hands of Ultratech. Thunder was initially very upset by this, and spent a long deal of time mourning during the events of Killer Instinct 2. Meanwhile, Eagle as Fulgore had been heavily damaged during his fight with Jago and he was retired. It is unknown if the new Fulgore model present in Killer Instinct 2 was Eagle or not. On another note, in Thunder's ending in the first Killer Instinct, a ghastly image of Spinal is shown rising from Eagle's grave upon mention. It may very well be that Spinal was either originally intended to be an undead Eagle, or was there as a placeholder, or (more likely) that he had something to do with his disappearance. His true fate in the original universe remains unknown to this day. Killer Instinct (2013) In the alternate rebooted universe, Eagle was a member of the Disavowed who worked closely with Orchid to fight against Ultratech. Thunder witnessed his brother's capture and attacked ARIA in a fit of rage, but he was subdued and Eagle was brought back to Ultratech headquarters. There he was utilized as the "human element" in a prototype for the Fulgore Mk. III, as his brain waves were copied and used as the basis for the combat AI of the Fulgore Mk. III. The resulting product is the same Fulgore that is controlled by the player in KI 2013's Arcade Mode. After Thunder came to terms with his brother's mysterious kidnapping and apparent death, he begrudgingly struck an accord with ARIA to serve Ultratech in exchange for recovering Eagle’s remains. However, while Thunder was going about this ordeal, Orchid revealed to him that Eagle was, in fact, not dead. Thunder then broke his deal with ARIA and began to hunt down all the Fulgores he could, in search of the one that he believed contained Eagle's spirit or remains. Story In ARIA’s mind, Eagle is the most valuable being on the planet. His ability to commune with and influence all forms of life, including machines, is the key to her total destruction. Modified by both Ultratech and Glacius, Eagle soars into battle with his mid-range Tech Short Bow and Weyekin Bird companion, the two working as one to take down anyone who threatens the balance of this world. Extended story To be added... Novella Chapter 5 — ARIA for Noömorph: Shadow Lords To be added... Music Eagle's theme, "An Eagle's Call"https://twitter.com/zq_audio/status/913146303885877248, is composed by the KI 2013 Season Three composers, Celldweller and Atlas Plug. Like his older brother's 2013 theme, this theme combines both modern and traditional instruments, and features authentic vocals by Native American singers of the Nez Percé tribe in Idaho; the main vocals were performed by Anthony "toyáaxnin" Smith, who was previously featured in Thunder's 2013 theme. When the combatants remain idle for a short period while using his theme on any stage, then a tranquil flute remix of the KI main theme, "The Instinct", will begin playing. Quotes Gallery KI Series = |-|KI Comics = - 2017 = Killer Instinct "Dynamite" Comics (2017) Eagleshot.jpg|Lineart of Eagle in the 2017 comics 2017comicsariaglaciuseagle.jpg|Lineart by artist Cam Adams showing tipyeléhne and Glacius taking on ARIA Eagleglacius.jpg - }} Trivia * Josiah Pinkham, one of the Nez Percé consultants for Killer Instinct (2013) who provided advice for reimagining Thunder/Hinmatoom's design as culturally authentic, is interestingly named "tipyeléhne cimuuxcimux", translated as "Black Eagle", which was the character's codename in the original KI comics. ** The same real-life Nez Percé members who previously advised Iron Galaxy on Thunder's design were also consulted for Eagle's design, personality and mannerisms, presumably around the same time the developers at Iron Galaxy were creating Thunder's newly culturally-authentic Legend of Thunder costume (which was released for free in December of 2016). *** It was later confirmed that two other Nez Percé consultants, Thomas Gregory and Anthony Smith, were responsible for providing Eagle's voice and the vocals of his theme respectively. * Eagle's addition to the KI 2013 character roster was teased long before his official announcement: ** First, in Thunder's third ending in Season One's Arcade Mode, there is a character silhouette in the sky that is supposed to represent Eagle, although Thunder's retro (biker) costume was used as a placeholder instead (minus the tomahawks.). *** Interestingly, the ending also makes a reference to Eagle's unknown fate in the first KI game, as well as his presumed connection with Spinal, in which the undead skeleton arose from the fighter's grave. The reboot mentions how Eagle's death was "blamed on a 600-year old immortal", meaning Spinal, but was later proven false. **Second, in Aganos' storyline during Season Two's Rivals Mode, Thunder's biker costume was once again used as a placeholder for Eagle during a cutscene. *Eagle's original fate in the KI lore, where he was forcefully converted by Ultratech into the cyborg killing machine called Fulgore, seemed to have been inspired by the fate of Alex Murphy in Paul Verhoeven's 1987 film RoboCop. **In the KI comics, Eagle was shown with a bald head while still in his Fulgore chassis as he was rescued by Thunder, in a reference to the face reveal scene from RoboCop. **Eagle's fate was slightly retconned for KI 2013, where his brain patterns were copied instead to serve as the basis for the Fulgore Mk. III's AI, rather than Eagle himself been converted into the ruthless cyborg soldier. * In the 5th chapter of the Killer Instinct Novella, titled "ARIA for Noömorph", it is mentioned that ARIA deems Eagle's appearance as aesthetic, with the AI characterizing him as handsome by "human standards". * Eagle is the last character to have a teaser trailer in Season 3 ever since Mira on April 2016. * Eagle will receive a "gold skin", but thus far is not scheduled to receive his own Ultimate. *BlitzedKraig, one of the IG developers for KI 2013, confirmed that Eagle isn't a remix character similar to the post-Season 3 characters Kilgore or Shin Hisako, but was "built from the ground up. Completely." **Thus, he has received his own retro costume, which is not available for remix characters as well as Bonus characters (i.e. Omen). *In Eagle's Retro costume, his weyekin's appearance is visually similar to a phoenix in Greek and Roman mythology, in which it is reborn from its own ashes, symbolic of how Eagle is "reborn" through his cybernetic enhancements that were forcibly implanted by Ultratech while his body lied in stasis. **His weyekin's appearance also references the name of Thunder's original projectile blast in the original KI 1994 game. *As revealed by IG's Adam "Keits" Heart during a livestream character breakdown of Eagle on his release day, if a Rash player uses the toad's Wicked Tongue maneuver to eat Eagle's arrows as they are shot, then they disappear permanently for the entire match. *Following Rash, Mira, General RAAM, Eyedol, Kilgore and Shin Hisako over the course of Season Three, Eagle doesn't have his own stage in Killer Instinct, but does have his own selectable theme for any stage. However, he shares with his brother's Devil's Landing as his stage in the game, similar to the situation with Omen sharing the Shadow Tiger's Lair with Shadow Jago and Gargos (temporarily), Mira sharing the Alchemical Lab with Sabrewulf and Eyedol sharing the Forbidden Archive with Kan-Ra and Rash in Survival Mode. This makes him the eighth overall fighter as well as the third character in Post-Season 3 amongst the roster who does not have a stage, but shares an arena with another combatant. References External links Media * Eagle's teaser - First teaser appearance of Eagle for Killer Instinct (2013) *Eagle's trailer - Eagle's official reveal for Season Three of KI 2013 *Eagle - Behind the scenes - Iron Galaxy offering a look behind the scenes with Eagle's voice actor, Thomas "tátlo" Gregory *UA Bass (Eagle) vs. UA DevilMayCare (TJ Combo) - Video compilation of pro gamer matchups with Eagle (KI 2013) Category:Killer Instinct 2013 Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Good Characters Category:Characters